


Take My Hand, Live Again

by Meilan_Firaga



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-09-05
Updated: 2014-09-05
Packaged: 2018-02-16 05:29:25
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 727
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2257572
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Meilan_Firaga/pseuds/Meilan_Firaga
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Written for rachelleneveau on LJ.</p>
<p>With the loss of her husband and daughter weighing heavily on her shoulders, Andromeda Tonks does not want to keep dancing to the tune of civility. Kingsley decides not to give her a choice.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Take My Hand, Live Again

**Author's Note:**

> Written as a gift for rachelleneveau during the Summer Wishlist event at Rare-Pair Shorts on LJ.

When the war had first ended, bitter wouldn't even have begun to describe the way Andromeda felt. She was alive, her grandson was alive, and the world had been saved. None of that changed the fact that losing her husband and her only daughter... well, the cost had just been too great. When the invitation for the first annual Remembrance Ball turned up in the post, she never even considered changing out of her fuzzy bathrobe and finding a sitter for Teddy long enough to go.  
  
She hadn't banked on someone else expecting her there.  
  
It was perhaps an hour until the start of the ball that she was decidedly not thinking about when the fireplace lit up, spilling Kingsley Shacklebolt in his finest dress robes and a smiling, elderly witch with a hand-knitted shawl about her shoulders into the parlor. Kingsley glanced about the room, taking in the generally disheveled state of things, before his eyes came to rest on her. He smiled, looking for all the world as if calling unannounced the evening of a major Ministry event was as commonplace as breathing.  
  
"Ah, good, you're not out," he observed, patting some of the soot from his robes. "These bloody Ministry shindigs--they never take into account that one can't focus on finding a date when one is busy helping rebuild our world. Mother has offered to look after Teddy so you can save my behind, Andromeda, so do go get dressed." He plucked Teddy from her arms, bouncing the boy over to an armchair while Mother Shacklebolt urged a stunned Andromeda from the room. Before she could even voice a protest, the older woman had her wand to hand, whisking her nightdress away, charming her hair into something orderly, and dressing her in a set of dress robes she hadn't thought to wear in nearly a decade.  
  
"Now, don't you fret," Mother Shacklebolt assured her. "My Kingsley may be the only one of seven not to give me grandbabies, but the other six came up with quite the brood. I know how to take care of the little ones well enough, so you just trot off and enjoy the ball." Smiling at Andromeda in the mirror, she fluffed the well ordered curls she'd just finished setting. "I brought my knitting and a delightful book of muggle puzzles, so don't you be trying to beg off the ball early. Young Teddy and I will get along just fine for the night."  
  
That was how Andromeda found herself being escorted into the Remembrance Ball on the arm of the new Minister for Magic at the very opening of the doors. She was still so stunned by the whirlwind of the evening that she'd barely managed a word. It was only when Kingsley was leading her on the dance floor, that she finally gathered her wits. "I do hope you don't think this is going to become a regular occurrence," she hissed, using all of her considerable dissembling talent to keep a content face up for the room.  
  
Kingsley's laugh was genuine. "Of course not. After the third or fourth time, you'll stop getting so flustered and already be dressed by the time Mother and I arrive."  
  
"You are entirely too confident for your own good." She was not going to admit to the happy flutter in her stomach.  
  
"Listen, Andromeda," Kingsley began, his face growing serious as he pulled her closer. "I understand the pain you're feeling. I had six siblings before the war and only three now. I can't imagine what it must be like to lose a spouse and a child." He took a deep breath, eyes finding hers as he pressed on. "But this event, all the others, they're as much for the ones we've lost as they are for the survivors. We must all remember to live for them as much as we live for ourselves." He spun her away from him, letting go so that she came to a stop staring at his outstretched hand. "So take my hand, Andromeda, and learn to live again."  
  
The second time he Floo'd in the night of a Ministry event, she was waiting for him. Her dress robes were neatly pressed, her hair was immaculate, and she'd gotten a small stack of knitting magazines for Mother Shacklebolt. He smiled at her the entire night.


End file.
